It will, however, engage in general banking business, and for this purpose Yi Yong-ik, the President of the Central Bank, is preparing at the Government mint one, five, ten and one hundred dollar bills for issue by it. Along with these objects, the postal and telegraph service has received no little attention. Up to the year 1883 Korea was without telegraphic communication. At that time the Japanese laid a submarine cable from Nagasaki to the Korean port of Fusan with an intermediate station upon the island of Tsu-shima. A little later, in 1885, China, taking advantage of her suzerain rights, deputed Mr. J. H. Muhlensteth, a telegraph engineer who had been in her service many years and who formerly had been an _employé_ of the Danish Telegraph System, to construct a land telegraph line from Chemulpo by way of Seoul and Pyöng-yang to Wi-ju on the Yalu River opposite the Chinese frontier post of An-tung, which had connection with the general system of Chinese telegraphs. This line toward the north-west was for many years the only means of telegraphic communication between the capital of Korea and the outside world. It was worked at the expense and under the control of the Chinese Government, and it was not until the time of the Chino-Japanese war, in the course of which the line was almost entirely destroyed, that it was reconstructed by the Korean Government. In 1889 the Korean Government built a line from Seoul to Fusan. After the Chino-Japanese war, telegraphic communication was extended from Seoul to Won-san and Mok-po. During recent years continuous progress has been made until the total development in the interior has now reached 3500 kilometres, divided into twenty-seven bureaux and employing 113 men as directors, engineers, secretaries, and operators, with 303 as students. The Morse system is in use. The electricity is generated by the use of the Leclanché batteries. Telegrams may be sent either in the native Korean script, in Chinese, or in the code used by the Chinese administration, and in the different foreign languages authorised by the International Telegraph Agreement. Horse relays are kept at the different telegraph centres in the interior to facilitate communication with points far distant. The subjoined table reveals by comparison the development in the Korean system of telegraphs which has taken place during recent years: 1899. 1900. 1901. 1902. Telegrams 112,450 125,410 152,485 209,418 Revenue $50,686.89 $72,443.26 $86,830.86 $112,337.18 Length of lines in _li_ 5000 5090 6510 7060 Offices 19 22 27 27